News

Metallica Joins iTunes Catalog

Exit light, enter... Metallica on your iTunes. The Bay Area metal giants have ended a long delay in making their catalog available for single-song download in Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store. They have previously put entire albums up for sale online at websites like MSN, and also have made live shows available for download a la Pearl Jam, but this will be the first time that fans can snag singles.

On a posting on their website, Metallica placed this news item in the "It's about f*cking time file," but warned fans not living in the U.S. or Canada that they may be in for a much longer wait.

"This is unfortunately due to the fact that our record company overseas doesn't seem to want to play ball with us on this at the moment," the statement reads. "Hopefully this will get sorted out ASAFP, but we didn't want our fans in North America to have to wait any longer while our overseas record company tries to get their sh*t together!"

True Metallica fans obviously have worn through several copies of each classic album on CD, cassette, and vinyl. But the digital downloads offer a carrot to even the finest Metallica collector: previously unreleased tracks. Guess what, though? No single-song downloads there; you have to buy the full album to get 'em.

"We decided to throw a couple of previously unreleased live tracks (Seattle '89) on to each of the first four albums (Kill 'Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, & ...And Justice For All)," the band's statement explains. "We chose these four because, unlike the more recent releases, we were only capable of writing 8-9 songs for each of these albums!"

No fans seemed to be quarreling over the lack of unreleased live tracks from 2003's St. Anger.

--The ARTISTdirect Staff
07.27.06